The metals we are most familiar with adopt a periodic, crystalline atomic arrangement. Metallic glasses, on the other hand, have an amorphous structure that is well suited for certain fabrication processes such as casting. Glassy metallic wires with widths of micrometers or nanometers are also less brittle than their bulk metallic counterparts, but such wires have proved difficult to fabricate. Wei Hua Wang and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now developed a simple method for producing well-controlled and defect-free metallic glass wires.

The researchers found that the resulting wires had high structural uniformity. Their surfaces were as smooth as those of industrial silica glass fibers, and the wires could tolerate a much greater bending angle, in excess of 90° (see image). The diameters of the wires were easily controlled by adjusting the drawing force, allowing the researchers to draw wires as thin as 70 nm—ten times thinner than any wires produced previously.

This work increases the feasibility of using metallic glass fibers as building blocks for microscale and nanoscale devices, with possible applications in composites, sensors, intelligent fabrics, circuit interconnects and optical waveguides. It also holds considerable intrinsic scientific interest, says Wang. “Our fibers can be used as a model system to study many fundamental issues in metallic glasses.”

1. Pakistan's third nuclear power reactor began commercial operation today. The Chashma Nuclear Power Plant unit 2, also known as CHASNUPP-2, is a 300 MWe pressurized water reactor located near Chashma Barrage on the left bank of the River Indus. Construction on the unit began late in 2005 and it was grid connected on 14 March this year. Pakistani and Chinese teams delivered the project three months ahead of schedule.

Pakistan currently has a small nuclear fleet consisting of three reactors with a net capacity of 725 MWe. However, it has plans to expand on this with at least two more reactors planned for the same site, and a total nuclear capacity of 8800 MWe by 2030. This is part of a much more ambitious program that would see an increase in generation from all sources from 20 GWe in 2006 to over 160 GWe by 2030.

iRobot hopes someday soon a robot waiter will deliver your food--and it might well use an Android tablet to see, hear, speak, and think. Today there are two general robot types that are sustainable businesses: high-end, expensive ones for defusing bombs in Afghanistan or monitoring radiation in Japan, and low-end ones for vacuuming. Angle wants an intermediate category and believes tablets will enable that market to develop.

AVA grafts a tablet onto a mobile robot body that can navigate floors. An Android-powered Motorola Xoom tablet was not just the brains of the operation, but the senses and face as well.

The tablet is the head
* camera and microphone for visual input
* a screen and speakers to let people interact with the robot

Diagram of an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator. Credit: U.S. Department of Energy

Two of the robotic missions NASA selected for further study last week would be powered by experimental nuclear generators. NASA picked robotic missions to Mars, a comet and Saturn's moon Titan as finalists last week for a launch opportunity in 2016, and two of the probes would employ a cutting edge nuclear power source never tested in space. Probes to Titan and comet Wirtanen, a small object composed of a mix of rock and ice, would be powered by Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generators on their journeys into the outer solar system. The nuclear power units, called ASRGs, use less plutonium than existing generators.

* 20 times harder than plastic but can be shaped like plastic
* Metallic glass is already produced in tens of thousands of tons per year (golf clubs and other markets). 1.3 billion tons of steel are produced every year and 10 million tons of stronger glass fiber. This should boost metallic glass to the millions of ton level by 2020
* lowering the cost of this stronger and tougher material will enable more applications
* separate work in China and other places, nanowires (as thin as 70 nanometers) can be produced from metallic glass

UC Berkeley researchers have a graphene optical modulator down to 25 square microns in size -- small enough to include in silicon circuitry -- and modulated it at a speed of 1GHz. The researchers say that modulation speeds of up to 500GHz are theoretically possible, though -- and for comparison, the modulators found in 40Gbit switches are measured in centimeters and operate at just 40GHz.

Atomic resolution electron micrograph of activated graphene. The images show that the material is composed of single sheets of crystalline carbon, which are highly curved to form a three-dimensional porous network.

Activated graphene combines high storage capacity with quick energy release and unlimited recharge. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have helped to uncover the nanoscale structure of a novel form of carbon, contributing to an explanation of why this new material acts like a super-absorbent sponge when it comes to soaking up electric charge. The material, which was recently created at The University of Texas - Austin, can be incorporated into “supercapacitor” energy-storage devices with remarkably high storage capacity while retaining other attractive attributes such as superfast energy release, quick recharge time, and a lifetime of at least 10,000 charge/discharge cycles.

But wouldn’t it be cool to be able to go further, to actually look INSIDE a quantum computer, with large numbers of qubits all interacting and computing, and catch the quantum mechanics in the act?

* This is the workings of a quantum processor. It is programmable – it actually solves problems, looks similar to the integrated circuits inside your laptop, and you can program it using Python

* They can use those quantum effects to compute

The unit cell mentioned above is operated in the same way as it would be during a normal computation – running what is known as a quantum annealing algorithm. The difference is that at a certain point during the computation, the usually slow, careful annealing of the qubits is suddenly interrupted by a very fast signal. This signal causes the unit cell to ‘freeze’ in whatever state it was in at the time. If you repeat the computation lots of times, but each time apply your ‘freezing’ signal at a slightly different moment during the quantum computation, you can build up a series of ‘snapshots’, like stills on a movie reel. D-Wave scientists compiled all these snapshots to reveal exactly what is happening during the quantum computation.

Luna has a Dual Core Atom 2 GHz processor, a Linux-based operating system, and up to 32 GB of storage. Interaction is possible via an 8-inch capacitive touchscreen, a three-microphone array with speakers, wireless and cellular communication, an 8-megapixel camera, and a 3D sensor. She runs on a 12-volt battery, for 4-8 hours per charge.

The IEEE website also reports a projected price of just US$1,000, although the first models (which should ship later this year) will go for $3,000.

I think when Heartland robotics comes out with $5000 or less high precision robotic arms, mounting those arms onto these kinds of robots will be very powerful. A one high precision arm robot that is mobile with visual and audio interfaces could be had for about $6000. Those robots will be able to run thousands of different apps. There a rapid impact of millions of highly functional personal robot within 3 years.

The railway authority has also decided that the fastest train service between the two mega-cities will make an extra stop in Nanjing (capital of Jiangsu province), according to an official with the transport bureau under the Ministry of Railways.

The Beijing-Shanghai high speed train will run at speeds between 155mph - 185mph and provide three services: "non-stop" (which actually will stop in the old imperial capital of Nanjing), a medium-fast service stopping in provincial capitals and a "full service" stopping in 24 stations along the line.

EMC2 Fusion has a $7.9 million Navy contract to test a plasma technology known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion, also known as Polywell fusion.

Some of the leading team members went on leave from Los Alamos National Laboratory to work on EMC2. Rick Nebel, the Los Alamos engineer who led the company since Bussard's death in 2007, retired from the company last November. Taking his place as acting chief executive officer is Jaeyoung Park. The 41-year-old physicist says he's given up his position at Los Alamos to focus fully on EMC2.

"We had a lot of milestones to meet in the last six months or so," Park told me today. "It's been pretty hectic."

May 10, 2011

Business Standard - India is about to exceeds $2 trillion in GDP. According to recently released data, India’s nominal GDP is expected to grow at 14 per cent in 2011-12 (Fiscal year end March 31, 2012), to reach Rs 90 lakh crores. At a dollar exchange rate of Rs 45 (currently the exchange rate is Rs 41.5 to 1 US$), this works out to $2 trillion. However, if inflation is assumed to be 7 per cent and the real growth rate is 9 per cent as projected, the growth rate of 14 per cent may actually understate nominal growth rate by 2 percentage points, which means India’s nominal GDP in dollar terms will actually exceed $2 trillion this fiscal.

If by year end the rupiah is around Rp 8,000 per US dollar, then the average rate of exchange of the US currency will be around Rp 8,400 to Rp 8,500. Therefore, an average exchange rate of Rp 8,500 is certainly a conservative assumption.

Indonesia's economy will expand further next year. If the rate of growth continues, we will see Indonesia’s nominal GDP rise again in 2012 to a level of around Rp 8,500 trillion, an increase of 15 percent. With the strengthening rupiah against the US dollar, Indonesia’s GDP may translate to a level of over $1 trillion in 2012.

NASA has put out a call for a $200 million mission to show how to store and transfer rocket propellants in space. In-space refueling technology would allow smaller and cheaper rockets to be used for missions that would otherwise be outside their weight class. It will also considerably enhance the capabilities of larger rockets. "Instead of sending the rockets fully fueled to asteroids or to Mars we would launch them partially fueled to get more payload into orbit," Chris Moore, deputy director of advanced capabilities for NASA told Foxnews.com. "Then we'd top off the propellant by docking with depots in lower Earth orbit."

Android 3.1 update (new version of Android called Ice Cream Sandwich) to the Honeycomb tablet OS adds the ability to make an Android device a USB host.

Android 3.1's interface includes features such as a new scrolling list of apps for switching among them and resizable widgets. Existing widgets can be updated with new XML code to give them the new resizing abilities.

Google has launched Music Beta by Google, a new service that lets you upload your personal music collection to the cloud for streaming to your computer and Android devices

Cancer researchers are a step closer to finding a cure for advanced prostate cancer after effectively combining an anti-cancer drug with a viral gene therapy in vivo using novel ultrasound-targeted microbubble-destruction (UTMD) technology. The research was conducted by scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine and School of Medicine, in collaboration with colleagues from Washington University School of Medicine and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

While many of Dr. Cui’s preclinical and preliminary clinical studies have shown promising results and the FDA has approved a combined phase I-II clinical trial in the US which is currently in process, a lack of conventional funding has limited the access of many patients to the US trial. Due to the significantly lower cost of medical procedures in China, it is now possible to conduct the clinical trials for testing LIFT in China for a larger number of subjects.

The first clinical trial in China is taking place at the 304 Hospital in Beijing and its lead investigator is Dr. Wenhua Xiao. It will include twenty-six patients and you can read more about it in the Who Can Participate? section.

Final commissioning tests will now be carried out prior to ramp-up to 100% power and the start of commercial operation. According to Iranian news agency Fars, the plant is expected to be connected to the national grid within the next two months.

It would normally take a few months after grid connection before a new nuclear reactor is operating at full commercial capacity.

According to a Deloitte Center for Financial Services sponsored study, wealth among millionaire households could more than double over the next decade in 25 major economies, growing from an estimated $92 trillion this year to $202 trillion in 2020. The study provides estimates of the number of households with net wealth in three distinct cohorts of $1 million- $5 million, $5 million- $30 million, and $30 million plus across 25 economies. In 2020, 43 percent of the world's wealth held by millionaire households is predicted to be in the U.S. while the number of millionaire households in the U.S. is projected to increase from an estimated 10.5 million in 2011 to 20.6 million in 2020.

Aerogel materials have myriad scientific and technological applications due to their large intrinsic surface areas and ultralow densities. However, creating a nanodiamond aerogel matrix has remained an outstanding and intriguing challenge. Here we report the high-pressure, high-temperature synthesis of a diamond aerogel from an amorphous carbon aerogel precursor using a laser-heated diamond anvil cell. Neon is used as a chemically inert, near-hydrostatic pressure medium that prevents collapse of the aerogel under pressure by conformally filling the aerogel’s void volume. Electron and X-ray spectromicroscopy confirm the aerogel morphology and composition of the nanodiamond matrix. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements of recovered material reveal the formation of both nitrogen- and silicon- vacancy point-defects, suggesting a broad range of applications for this nanocrystalline diamond aerogel.

* The nanodiamond aerogel is 40 times as dense as air
* samples of the nanodiamond new gel are about 200 microns wide
* nanodiamond aerogel can be molded like plastic and is completely transparent
* Made of diamonds smaller than a quarter of the wavelength of violet light
* it does not react with many elements, therefore it is biocompatible
* nanodiamond aerogel can be used to coat structures in the human body
* It can coat glass or clear plastic to create tough but well-insulated windows and instruments for spacecraft
* Diamonds give off electrons, it can be used in ultra-light, ultra-tough quantum computers and other electronics
* it is reasonable to speculate that the chemical transformation from amorphous carbon to cubic nanocrystalline diamond could proceed through a hydrogen-catalyzed mechanism. However, detailed simulations are required to determine the precise atomistic processes involved in this phase transition.

SENS Foundation's has a Year End Report for 2010. The Report includes: an overview of the year from our CEO, Mike Kope; a research summary from CSO Aubrey de Grey; commentaries on our Research Center operations and our outreach activities; and a breakdown of our 2010 finances.

The SENS Foundation’s research strategy is to support a mix of intramural work at our Research Center and extramural projects at university laboratories elsewhere.

The Research Center has hired five additional full-time and one part-time staff,
including Tanya Jones, our Director of Research Operations. They have two
vibrant projects, within the LysoSENS and MitoSENS project areas.

In 2012-13, Aeros plans to fly the Pelican, a 230-ft.-long, 600,000-cu.-ft. demonstrator for its rigid-aeroshell, variable-buoyancy (RAVB) technology. Inside the shell, comprising a load-bearing frame of carbon-fiber trusses covered by thin-gauge rigid panels, will be a membrane to contain the helium lifting gas. Inside that membrane will be pressurized pump-fed tanks. More helium under pressure in the tanks makes the vehicle heavier, and less makes it lighter.

The airship will be over three times as efficient as a C17 cargo ship but three times less efficient than a truck. It will be about three times faster than a truck (especially being able to fly in a straight line and over rough terrain).

A research team has now identified a group of mitochondrial proteins that are involved in this type of aging regulation. The researchers found that a group of proteins called MTC proteins, which are normally needed for mitochondrial protein synthesis, also have other functions that influence genome stability and the cell's capacity to remove damaged and harmful proteins.

* the blood vessel was created with the girl’s own stem cells, she does not need to take drugs to prevent rejection

* it is possible to create new blood vessels from stem cells, using a previous blood vessel as a template

* The next step is to intensify research into the recreation of other organs, and to develop methods that can be used for arteries. This can help, among others, patients who need dialysis and those needing surgery for the coronary arteries. It may also help those needing complete organs

Researchers with UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a way to amp up the power of killer T-cells, called CD8 cells, making them more functional for longer periods of time and boosting their ability to multiply and expand within the body to fight melanoma, a new study has found. When they programmed t-cells in the presence of IL-12 (Interleukin-12), they saw that the tumors decreased in size and the mice with brain metastases (cancer tumors) survived longer. In fact, Prins said that the mice treated with killer T cells primed in the presence of IL-12 lived about 2.5 times longer than those not receiving the IL-12.

A protein called Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH) could play a key role in treating many different types of cancers. KLH can be used to direct the body to attack the cancer cells, and it also has important applications in immune response testing and immunotoxicology. But the molecule is harvested from a rare mollusk, and is extremely expensive, selling for thousands of dollars per gram. A company called Stellar Biotechnologies has found a way to harvest KLH without killing the mollusks, constituting a major advance for cancer treatment. In an interview with Sander Olson, Stellar Vice-President Dr. Herbert Chow, Ph.D, describes the considerable potential of this protein.

Herbert Chow, Ph.D, interview

Question:How did you first find out about the Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH)?

I have known of the unique and extremely valuable properties of KLH since my days as a student of immunology many years ago. I have been with Stellar working on KLH related products for about 18 months. It is a large molecule that is harvested from the blood of a very rare ocean mollusk. This mollusk resides from central California to Baja Mexico. This mollusk produces a glycoprotein - a protein sheathed in a sugar molecule. This is one of the largest molecules ever found in the biological world. Due to its sheer size, it cannot be synthetically made, and can only be harvested from this mollusk. This molecule, which we call KLH,is extremely valuable and can be used in vaccines as well as other therapies.

May 09, 2011

Colloidal crystals for photonics applications. (Left) Colloidal crystals can be formed into any shape to achieve desired reflectance properties. (Center) Inverse structures can be obtained by infiltrating the crystal with various materials and then removing the template particles (colloidal templating). (Right) Short-range-ordered structures of colloidal particles or colloidal glasses can be assembled to achieve angle-independent coherent optical scattering.

Colloidal self-assembly has been investigated as a promising and practical approach for the fabrication of photonic nanostructures, including colloidal crystals, composite and inverse opals, and photonic glasses. Depending on the interactions between the colloidal particles, colloidal structures can be affected dramatically and modulated by applying an additional external field. Furthermore, in contrast to other approaches, self-assembled nanostructures with large areas or designed shapes can be prepared at low cost. As a result, the use of such colloidal systems has been investigated in many practical photonic applications. In this review article, we describe the colloidal self-assembly of periodic and non-periodic photonic nanostructures in brief and then summarize recent achievements in the field of colloidal photonic nanostructures and their applications, which include displays, optical devices, photochemistry and biological sensors.

The goal is to make a charger would cost of order a dollar and could completely charge a phone in 24 hours. Furthermore, unlike solar panels, MFCs do not require any sophisticated materials: they can be easily assembled in only a few minutes. As cultural knowledge of MFC technology spreads, Africans will become capable of assembling their own chargers almost entirely from scratch, and at minimal cost that will be recouped with the very first recharge."

Aiden has already demonstrated the effectiveness of the MFC-approach, building MFCs that can produce enough to power LED lights for use in homes in regions such as Tanzania and Namibia. Moreover, the MFCs were able to operate continuously in the lab for 14 months.

Geobacter species also have the ability to transfer electrons on to the surface of electrodes. As outlined under the Microbial Fuel Cell link, this has made it possible to design novel microbial fuel cells which can efficiently convert waste organic matter and renewable biomass to electricity.

The device uses sensors with very small strands of different pathogenic DNA integrated onto their surfaces to quickly recognize pathogenic DNA from water samples. The DNA in the sensors will only bind to the water samples’ corresponding DNA, multiplied for easier identification. To see what different DNAs are present in the water samples, the researchers apply a reaction called chemiluminescence that will make the bound DNAs emit light. The nanoscale reactions are then interpreted by a computer. The DINAMICS project’s researchers have also developed another type of sensor that changes the bound DNAs into electric signals. The signal’s magnitude is proportional to the quantity of pathogenic DNA from the water sample.

Pre-Big Bang black holes with masses of a few hundred million kilograms to the mass of the sun might have made it through. Black holes of these masses may have been able to retain their structure, keeping them separate from the Big Crunch singularity that is predicted to form. Then, as the Big Bang exploded to life, these black holes slipped into the new universe... our universe.

This is a pretty heady theory, but it's not the first to suggest some pre-Big Bang artefacts may survive into the modern universe.

In Nov. 2010, British physicist Roger Penrose went on the record to say that it was by his reckoning that there were patterns in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) -- the "echo" of the Big Bang. Penrose's theory is that gravitational waves -- "ripples" in spacetime -- leaked through from the pre-Big Crunch universe, imprinting the CMBR with detectable rings.

Work in Iraq has proceeded on a very large scale, in most cases on or near the schedule set in detailed contracts let to international oil companies. The companies have invested over $5 billion within the past year, a meaningful portion of it unrecoverable bonuses. Announcements from operators of three major field-development projects—BP, ExxonMobil, and Eni—in the past few months confirmed that they had achieved or exceeded contractual targets. Production increases under these contracts have combined to boost Iraqi exports by 300,000 b/d

Conceptual diagrams of MMW-over-fiber communication systems with (a) a common optical local oscillator (LO) MMW source shared by different base stations and (b) different electrical LO MMW sources installed at each base station.

In this paper, recent progress in millimeter-wave (MMW) photonic gigabit wireless communication is reviewed. This technique is attractive partly because the MMW signal can be easily distributed from central to base stations through the use of a low-loss optical fiber. This radio-over-fiber approach facilitates the transmission of MMW signals. An MMW photonic transmitter, comprised of high-power photodiodes with integrated antennas for MMW signal broadcasting, is needed for signal generation only over the last mile. The development of several different low-noise optical MMW sources and high-power photonic transmitters and photodiodes for optical MMW wireless links is summarized. The performance of photonic wireless links with extremely high data rates (over 10 Gbit per second) developed based on these key components and using different modulation schemes is also reviewed. Finally, some advanced commercially available products and the prospects of a future gigabit wireless communication era are discussed.

* 10 Gbit per second wireless line-of-sight data transmission at a center frequency of 120 GHz has been demonstrated

* the 16-QAM or OFDM modulation formats have been used to achieve wireless data transmission of around 30 Gbit per second at a 60 GHz center frequency

* In our recent work, we demonstrated error-free 20 Gbit per second OOK wireless data transmission in the W-band using an NBUTC photodiode-based photonic transmitter–mixer

The car came in second to the team Edison2 in the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition last summer. The car had a clutch problem during the X-Prize competition. The Illuminati team has continued to work on their vehicle. The Edison2 Very Light Car, winner of the competition last summer achieved just 102.5 MPGe. The Nissan Leaf, now commercially available, gets just 99 MPGe according to the EPA rating.

Devices in which a single strand of DNA is threaded through a nanopore could be used to efficiently sequence DNA. However, various issues will have to be resolved to make this approach practical, including controlling the DNA translocation rate, suppressing stochastic nucleobase motions, and resolving the signal overlap between different nucleobases. Here, we demonstrate theoretically the feasibility of DNA sequencing using a fluidic nanochannel functionalized with a graphene nanoribbon. This approach involves deciphering the changes that occur in the conductance of the nanoribbon as a result of its interactions with the nucleobases via π–π stacking. We show that as a DNA strand passes through the nanochannel, the distinct conductance characteristics of the nanoribbon (calculated using a method based on density functional theory coupled to non-equilibrium Green function theory) allow the different nucleobases to be distinguished using a data-mining technique and a two-dimensional transient autocorrelation analysis. This fast and reliable DNA sequencing device should be experimentally feasible in the near future.

These upgrades could improve the energy output of the country’s existing reactor fleet by as much as seven reactors' worth at a fraction of the cost of building new reactors, while providing continued improvements in reliability and safety, the release from DOE said. Sophisticated models developed by CASL researchers could help accelerate upgrades at existing U.S. nuclear plants, increasing energy output and improving energy reliability and safety.

* uprates for 5–7 GWe delivered at 20% of new reactor costs
* Advances in Modeling and Simulation needed for further uprates of up to 20 GWe
* Significant financial decisions to support operation beyond 60 years are expected in 2014-2019

1. The second unit at China's Ling Ao II nuclear power plant has been connected to the grid. The 1080 MWe Chinese-designed CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor (PWR) was synchronised with the grid on 3 May. It is now undergoing final tests prior to commercial operation which is scheduled to begin on 15 June, exactly five years after construction formally began. The reactor is the second CPR-1000 to start up, following its sister plant Ling Ao II unit 1, which entered commercial operation in September 2010. 17 CPR-1000s already under construction. Work is planned to begin on at least five more during 2011.

2.

The reactor building dome of unit 2 at the Yangjiang nuclear power plant in China was recently installed, 16 days ahead of schedule. Meanwhile, the second ring of the containment vessel of unit 2 at the Haiyang plant has also been lifted into place.

The results indicate that being highly motivated in tests improves IQ tests scores and being highly motivated in life improves life outcomes. “IQ scores are absolutely predictive of long-term outcomes. But what our study questions is whether that’s entirely because smarter people do better in life than other people or whether part of the predictive power (is) coming from test motivation,” Duckworth said. “This means that for people who get high IQ scores, they probably try hard and are intelligent,” she said. “But for people who get low scores, it can be an absence of either or both of those traits.”

Intelligence tests are widely assumed to measure maximal intellectual performance, and predictive associations between intelligence quotient (IQ) scores and later-life outcomes are typically interpreted as unbiased estimates of the effect of intellectual ability on academic, professional, and social life outcomes. The current investigation critically examines these assumptions and finds evidence against both. First, we examined whether motivation is less than maximal on intelligence tests administered in the context of low-stakes research situations. Specifically, we completed a meta-analysis of random-assignment experiments testing the effects of material incentives on intelligence-test performance on a collective 2,008 participants. Incentives increased IQ scores by an average of 0.64 SD, with larger effects for individuals with lower baseline IQ scores. Second, we tested whether individual differences in motivation during IQ testing can spuriously inflate the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes. Trained observers rated test motivation among 251 adolescent boys completing intelligence tests using a 15-min “thin-slice” video sample. IQ score predicted life outcomes, including academic performance in adolescence and criminal convictions, employment, and years of education in early adulthood. After adjusting for the influence of test motivation, however, the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes was significantly diminished, particularly for nonacademic outcomes. Collectively, our findings suggest that, under low-stakes research conditions, some individuals try harder than others, and, in this context, test motivation can act as a third-variable confound that inflates estimates of the predictive validity of intelligence for life outcomes.

Precision timekeeping is one of the bedrock technologies of modern science and technology. It underpins precise navigation on Earth and in deep space, synchronization of broadband data streams, precision measurements of motion, forces and fields, and tests of the constancy of the laws of nature over time.

May 08, 2011

Lighter load: A conventional hinge for the cover of a jet engine (top) could be replaced by the more intricate one at bottom, which is just as strong but weighs half as much. The new design, created by EADS, is made practical by three-dimensional printing technology. Credit: EADS Innovation Works

3D printing has now improved to the point that these printers can make intricate objects out of durable materials , including ceramics and metals such as titanium and aluminum, with resolution on the scale of tens of micrometers.

First is the environmentalist community. Thorium is a reliable and energy-rich substance that can address many of their issues with existing forms of nuclear power. Yet not a single environmentalist organization of any stature has embraced it. Why?

Second is the nuclear power generation community. LFTR technology addresses concerns about safety, high-pressure operation, spent-fuel management, nuclear fuel resources, and a host of other concerns. Yet not a single large-scale nuclear manufacturer has any effort to develop LFTR. No national nuclear program outside of the Chinese has an effort to develop thorium/LFTR. Why?

Shown is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) image magnifying the key structures of the graphene-based optical modulator. (Colors were added to enhance the contrast). Gold (Au) and platinum (Pt) electrodes are used to apply electrical charges to the sheet of graphene, shown in blue, placed on top of the silicon (Si) waveguide, shown in red. The voltage can control the graphene's transparency, effectively turning the setup into an optical modulator that can turn light on and off. (Ming Liu image)

Graphene enables modulators that are incredibly compact and that potentially perform at speeds up to ten times faster than current technology allows. This new technology will significantly enhance our capabilities in ultrafast optical communication and computing. This is the world’s smallest optical modulator, and the modulator in data communications is the heart of speed control.

The researchers layered graphene on top of a silicon waveguide to fabricate optical modulators. The researchers were able to achieve a modulation speed of 1 gigahertz, but they noted that the speed could theoretically reach as high as 500 gigahertz for a single modulator.

Graphene-based modulators could overcome the space barrier of optical devices, the researchers said. They successfully shrunk a graphene-based optical modulator down to a relatively tiny 25 square microns, a size roughly 400 times smaller than a human hair. The footprint of a typical commercial modulator can be as large as a few square millimeters.

One of the projects is to determine the genetic basis of high IQ. His team is sampling 1,000 Chinese adults with an IQ higher than 145, comparing their genomes with those of an equal number of randomly picked control subjects. Zhao acknowledges that such projects linking intelligence with genes may be controversial but “more so elsewhere than in China,” he says, adding that several U.S. research groups have contacted him for collaboration. “Everybody is interested in intelligence,” he says.